Potomac's eighth grade English students read and discuss The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The book is a series of short vignettes that together capture the characters, setting, and stories of a particular neighborhood in Chicago. The vignettes are written from the perspective of a fictional narrator and are based loosely on Cisneros's own experiences as well as those of her students. Some of the vignettes are humorous or action-packed; some are heart-wrenching or shocking. All are deliberate in their use of figurative language, poetic elements, grammar conventions, and pacing.

Each eighth grader composed at least one vignette for inclusion in this digital collection. They wrote in the style of Sandra Cisneros, as they interpreted it based on their notes and our class discussions, yet they set it in a time and place of their own choosing. While some of these vignettes are based on the author's personal experience, many of them are purely fiction, an imagining of characters and circumstances that seemed ripe for this assignment. Students also used this assignment to experiment with new vocabulary words and techniques involving punctuation and sentence structure.

We encourage you to leave comments below vignettes that strike you in some way. Please keep your comments positive and specific; this is not the place for critiques or suggestions. Enjoy the creativity and vibrancy of these students' literary efforts.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

pink. blue.

pink - they say you are supposed to be blue. you get attacked by strangers. everyone is afraid of you. your father says:

“i didn’t raise you to be pink - you are blue.”

and yet you stay pink. because being pink is who you are.

blue - they say you are supposed to be pink. people call you names. everyone is puzzled by you. your mother says:

“you weren’t born blue - you are pink.”

and yet you stay blue. because being blue is who you are.

in this world - where people impose one color on you. the color you were born with. where people call you an imposter. saying that you are the color you were born as. everyone infers that you are dazed and confused.

you will survive in this harsh world - and be who you are.

~ Mishona H.

Labels:

7 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:09 AM

    this is fantastic- CB

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:15 AM

    This is great! I love the message- MM

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:24 AM

    Great message! -NG

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:38 AM

    This has a really great message!
    -C.S.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CourtneyJanuary 6, 2016 at 1:38 PM

    Shona this is amazing! I love the way you used the pink and blue!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Khaya Y.January 6, 2016 at 5:38 PM

    I like how you used something as simple as color to explain something far more complicated and confusing. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 7:23 PM

    This is really amazing for a few different reasons, the main one being that pink and blue can be metaphors for almost anything in life. That last line was especially great.

    AC

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)